


Transparent

by obisgirl



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Episode: s01e23 How to Stop an Exploding Man, F/M, Gen, Heroes: Volume 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-26
Updated: 2007-06-26
Packaged: 2017-11-11 13:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obisgirl/pseuds/obisgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Micah is a smart kid.  He even sees how much Claire loves Peter despite her familial connection to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transparent

**Author's Note:**

> Characters: Molly and Micah, and Peter and Claire (hinted)  
> Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, just borrowing. All NBC’s and Tim Kring’s. Please don’t sue!  
> Spoilers: “How to Stop an Exploding Man”

For the first couple of months, Micah Sanders watched in silence as Claire tried to hide her feelings.  She tried to hide them from her dad and the others, and most of all, from herself but Micah saw right through her.  At first, he thought her feelings were guilt. 

But lately, he noticed small things that showed him that what she was feeling was more than guilt.  Sometimes, she would stop by Mohinder’s apartment, wanting to ask him something important but at the last minute, would change her mind, apologize and leave abruptly.   Mohinder knew Claire must have felt horrible for not being able to help Peter and attributed her weird behavior to that but Micah knew that there was more. 

He would be there often when she came, either talking or hanging out with Molly.   She could see it too.   Molly knew that there was something bothering Claire and said to him one time that maybe it had something to do with Peter, but brushed that notion off as crazy since they were related anyway, and it was weird to have those types of feelings for someone you were related too.

Micah agreed with her and let it go.

At the time, he hadn’t even considered that Peter and Claire hadn’t lived their lives as ‘uncle and niece.’ He didn’t even know she existed until a couple months ago, and that the girl he saved in Odessa, Texas was his own niece.   Claire didn’t know that he was related to her until she came to New York and found Angela Petrelli, Peter’s mom at his apartment.  

The one time Micah came to drop off homework for Molly, he found Claire standing against the wall in the hallway, waiting for Mohinder.  He didn’t know how long she had been there but it must have been a while because she smiled and blushed, embarrassed to have shown up yet again and have nothing to say. 

“Hey,” he greeted, “You came to talk to Dr. Suresh again,”

“Yeah, but it looks like he’s not home so I’ll be on my way,” she said, walking down the hallway to the stairs. 

Micah looked at the books in his hands and put them down, picking up a spare key under the mat.  “Hey Claire, wait,” he called, and she turned back to look at him as he dangled a spare key in his hands.  She came back over.  “I come here so often, Mohinder just had a spare made just for me so I can drop off Molly’s homework when she and Mohinder aren’t home,” 

Claire sat down on the couch and stared after Micah as he set down the books on a table, and turned back to her.  “You must think I’m crazy for coming here so often and then leaving abruptly before I can say what’s on my mind,” Claire said. 

Micah shrugged.  “You’re grieving,” he mused, “You miss Peter and your dad.  He sacrificed his life to save New York, and you,”

Claire blushed.  “I barely knew Nathan…” she admitted, “I saw him once in Kermit when he went to see my biological mom.  He gave her money to silence her before his precious election.  I thought he was a bastard but Peter was different…he…”

“He was your hero,” Micah finished, “He rescued and saved you from Sylar,”

Claire smiled thoughtfully. “Yeah, he did,” she whispered, remembering their second meeting at the jail.  For a long time, she didn’t have anybody to confide in about her feelings for Peter.    Who could she really talk to who wasn’t biased? Her dad knew that Peter was her uncle, and everyone else with abilities knew too.   Including Micah but Claire somehow felt that she could trust him.  “I miss him a lot,”

“Is that why you come over here a lot? To talk to Doctor Suresh about Peter?” he wandered, “You think he survived the explosion and you wanted to ask him if it was possible, or if maybe Molly could use her ability to find him,”

Claire looked at him and blushed.  “No one could have survived that explosion, even Peter,” she reasoned.   He was already dying before Nathan arrived.   There was no way he could have survived…no way…

“But you were hoping that he’d survived,” Micah said, “More so than your biological dad,”

Claire scowled and stood up abruptly.  She was offended but on some level, she knew Micah was right.    She should have been thinking about Nathan and wandering if maybe he survived too but lately, since the explosion, all she could think about was Peter.   She barely knew him too but from their brief time together, Claire knew that Peter was someone special.  

Claire knew she had feelings for him prior to coming to New York but she didn’t know until after the explosion, how much his death, affected her.  At night, she could cry in bed, for no apparent reason.   She thought it was because she missed Nathan and felt guilty for taking him away from his family.  But then, gradually, she began to realize it wasn’t just Nathan preoccupying her thoughts, but Peter as well. 

Except that her feelings for him were confusing.   She knew she cared about him and missed him a lot but now, she knew without a doubt, that she more than missed him.  She loved him and it was tearing her apart inside.  

“I miss them both, and wished both of them had survived but that’s not possible,” she said, slowly sitting back down. 

“But you still wish Peter hadn’t exploded,” he said, “So the two of you could spend more time together,”

Claire shrugged. “Well, yeah,” she said weakly, “I wish I knew him better…I wish a lot of things but that doesn’t mean they’ll come true,”

Micah sighed.  “But if he absorbed your ability to heal, then he could have survived.  He could have regenerated,” he reasoned, “Then the two of you would be reunited, and you would be happy again,”

  
_//But he would still be my uncle, //_ Claire thought.

“You know what I think?”

Claire turned and looked at him.  “I think you wanted him to survive so you could be together,” he said, smiling knowingly. 

“That’s crazy, even coming from an 11-year-old,” she retorted, “Peter and I cannot be together because he’s related to me,”

“But you still wanted him…even before you found out that he was your uncle,” Micah observed.

Claire laughed.  “And what kind of relationship could we have if he survived? Other than the familial connection, he’s still older than me,” she pointed out, “Old enough to be my uncle, and he is,”

“But if he weren’t your uncle or if you never knew the truth – you would still love him,” 

Love? That was a strong and dangerous word.  She couldn’t love Peter.  Not romantically anyway.   He was her uncle. She was his niece.    Falling in love with your uncle, and considering a relationship with him, was just sick – and tempting and forbidden, though Claire tended to think of forbidden as romantic.  

“I don’t know why I didn’t see this before….Mohinder is a geneticist,”

“So?” Claire spat. 

“You wanted to see if Peter was really your uncle.  Maybe there was a loophole or something so you could be together,” Micah theorized. 

“Okay, I think I need to leave now,” Claire said, getting up from the couch and started for the door.  Two steps to the door, Mohinder and Molly opened it.  Molly went over to Micah and hugged him, and then turned back to Mohinder and Claire. 

“You’re back again,” Mohinder observed. 

“And I was just leaving,” Claire said, looking back at Micah. 

“Claire came to talk to you Mohinder about Peter,” Micah said, “She’s been wanting to talk to you for a long time about him,” 

Claire’s cheeks reddened and she turned back to the Indian geneticist.   Mohinder crossed his arms.  He knew something was bothering Claire and it was probably about Peter but he didn’t know the extent of her little situation.  “What did you want to know about Peter?” he asked. 

Claire looked over at Micah.  He had her cornered and there was no way she could make up an excuse to leave now.   She had to tell him.  Claire walked back over to the couch, and sat down.  Micah thought she was going to start talking about her feelings but instead, she just sat there. 

“Girls,” he moaned, and turned to Molly.  Molly studied Claire and then looked at her friend.  “Come on, I’ll show you your homework, Molly.  You don’t want to get involved in this one,” 

Molly looked at Mohinder and then followed Micah to her room.   Mohinder took off his coat, hung it up and went to the kitchen to pour two cups of tea.  He brought them over on a tray and offered a cup to Claire.  “Sorry, I don’t have milk and cookies,” he said, smiling.

Claire thanked him and took the cup of tea as he sat down beside her, with his tea in hand. 

“I think I’m in love with Peter,” she said suddenly.

Mohinder’s eyes widened and put down his tea on the table in front of him.  “That was completely unexpected…and unfortunate,” he observed. 

“Unfortunate because he’s my uncle, or because he’s dead, along with my biological father?” she questioned. 

Mohinder smiled thoughtfully. “Unfortunate because from the stories I heard about your first meetings and afterwards at the jail, if the two of you weren’t related, I think you would have made a cute couple,” he reasoned. 

“The way we met…it seemed like a fairytale, Mohinder.  He saved me from the bad guy, and then vanished into the night,” Claire said dreamily, “For the first time, I finally felt like I wasn’t alone because there was someone else out there like me.  Peter made me feel like I was apart of something, and now that he’s gone…I feel lost without him,”

“Have you talked to your dad about your feelings?”

Claire laughed. “No,” she muttered, “What would he say anyway?  What kind of advice could he give me?”

“Point taken,” Mohinder agreed, “I don’t even know what to tell you…That is the reason why you kept on coming here? To ask me for advice?”

“And to do a blood test,” Claire whispered, “but that was the last thing on my mind.  I just needed to talk to someone who wasn’t biased,”

“Micah’s not biased?” he joked. 

Claire smiled.  “He saw right through me,” he laughed.  “Are you sure his ability isn’t super advanced intelligence?”

“It could be,” Mohinder said, and took another sip of his tea. “Look Claire, I wish there was something I could do to rectify the situation but I can’t.  Even if Peter turned up alive tomorrow, you still have to keep your feelings to yourself.  We don’t choose who we’re related too, Claire. You just have to deal with this,”

“So I should sign myself up for therapy?”

“It might help,”

“But it won’t take away my feelings,” Claire mused, standing up.  Mohinder stood up too. Claire sighed. “Thanks Mohinder.  You don’t know how long I’ve been in agony about this,”

He smiled. “Quite a while, I imagine,” he reasoned. 

“Tell Micah and Molly I said goodbye,” she said, walking to the door. 

“Claire,” he called back, and she turned to face him. “Any time you need to talk about your problem, or if you don’t want to spend money to see a psychologist, feel free to stop by.   I promise I’ll have milks and cookies next time,”

“Actually, I prefer cookies and cream ice cream,” she said, “And thanks again, Mohinder,”  

The End


End file.
